Monthly DRAM sales drop as end-users adjust inventory levels; consumer spending succumbs to inflation/recession pressure.
A vigorous DRAM market upturn that started in the last half of 2020 and continued through May 2022 is, by all accounts, over, according to data released in IC Insights’ August 3Q Update to The McClean Report 2022. After posting its highest monthly sales volume in more than two years in May, DRAM sales tumbled 36% in June and another 21% in July. The market collapse was steep and swift—so much so that July’s DRAM market was about half the size it was in May (Figure 1). Concern over soaring inflation and recession has cut into consumer spending on new smartphones, computers, TVs, and other electronic goods. In turn, system manufacturers have scaled back new DRAM orders, citing the need to burn through existing inventory that they have amassed.
